Reset a Lost Mac OS X Password

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Reset a Lost Mac OS X Password

I've you've forgotten your Mac's admin account password, don't worry. Assuming you haven't locked out OpenFirmware, it's a pretty simple task to change your password back to something you know.

The easiest and sure way to change passwords is to:

Put you Mac OS X disk in the drive

Reboot while holding down the 'c' key

When the OS boots click through until the Utility menu appears at the top of the screen

Go to the Password Utility

Select the drive and System Administrator

Change the password and save

Quit Password Utility

Quit Install...it will ask you to reboot

Login is as System Administrator

Go to System Preferences and change all of the passwords you want

Here's how:

Hold Apple+S when booting to enter single user mode

#sh /etc/rc

#passwd yourusername

#reboot

If you can't recall your user name, you can either look in the /Users folder (the directories are named by user), or run "niutil -list . /users".

Also, on older systems the /etc/rc script isn't available, apparently. If that second step fails, try mounting and starting the base services manually:

#/sbin/fsck -y

#/sbin/mount -uw /

#/sbin/SystemStarter

I've had to do this a couple of times for friends when they've bought a second hand machine, and once when I had a momentary brain lapse and forgot my own password. Works like a charm, though you'll loose any passwords stored in your keychain.

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